Law

Rebel With a Clear Cause

London-based maverick Bernie Hung, the mastermind of BlueBox Rocket, is also a Senior Attorney and Certified Business & Leadership Coach.

Sometimes, a stalled idea just needs a learned push to take flight. Or, perhaps even a rocket.

For entrepreneurs or CEOs stuck on the launching pad with the seed of an unfulfilled concept, BlueBox Rocket is adding serious fuel to the journey.

Founded in the spring of 2021 by London-based attorney, mentor and certified coach, Bernie Hung, BlueBox Rocket’s mission plan echoes the unique skill set of its CEO.

Predated by Hung’s two decades of experience in the legal world and the inception of BlueBox (without the Rocket) in ’18, the fresh endeavor is a fleshed-out coalescence of Hung’s Vison-to-Launch coaching service.

Blending her legal expertise with business consulting and certified coaching, Hung’s BlueBox Rocket is helping CEOs grow and expand their existing businesses, and working with entrepreneurs to launch seeds of concept into full-on fruition.

“I start by understanding the client’s vision, what are their dreams, and what have they done thus far to try and achieve those dreams. And that’s where the coaching starts to come into play,” says the Hong Kong-born CEO (berniehung.com). “My clients are either entrepreneurs or at a point in their executive career where they’ve reached a senior position in an organization. My approach is to grasp that dream, and then move on to legal questions. But then in the conversation, you very quickly can sense that something more is going on the background. Maybe they’re in a difficult position within the company, and by asking those questions, by understanding personal circumstances, by trying to understand them personally – it all helps me a lot when it comes to what they really want to do with their career.”

Hung’s approach and backdrop combine to usurp the vast amount of life coaches or mentors. To wit, her 20 years as an attorney includes high-end experience in international corporate law, including her work as in-house senior legal counsel for Gucci.

“I was trained as an Intellectual Property and Technology lawyer, and I am actually still practicing; I haven’t left the law behind,” she says. “In my work today with entrepreneurs, unless they’re in high-tech, they probably aren’t very aware of Intellectual Property; and many clients don’t think that they have IP and don’t understand what the parameters or the protection are for IP rights.”

Across the peak pandemic timeline, Hung’s legal experience in the tech realm saw several of her brick-and-mortar clients find sustenance online.

“For the more traditional industries with no e-commerce component, it’s been a more challenging time,” she says. “I’ve provided legal services for many of these businesses, fashion brands and clients included, having helped them get into that e-commerce space, setting up the framework.”

In concert with her legal métier, Hung’s coaching C.V. runs long and strong, with certifications including: Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach; MBTI Stage I & II Practitioner and Feedback Coach; and Member of the Henley Centre for Coaching (Henley Business School, University of Reading).

“It’s a rare and unique offering,” says the humble Hung of her singular skill set. “I personally do not know any other senior lawyer who is also a certified coach.”

Hung doesn’t gauge her legal work by seniority, but rather by her penchant for iconoclasm.

A self-coined “Rebel Lawyer,” she’s long preferred to defy convention.

“To me, a rebel is somebody who defines something in their own way; and for my work, it means I provide services in an unconventional way – and that’s because my clients have unconventional ideas,” she says. “To me, it would be odd to work with somebody who has unconventional ideas using a traditional approach.”

When taking on a new client with BlueBox Rocket, Hung’s aims echo the rarity of her resume; she doesn’t measure success by dollar signs, but rather by personal impact, finding success and progress in “baby steps” while working to unearth the realization of genuine vision.

Borrowing from Chinese her roots, Hung’s modern mantra is a daily dose of: “Leave no pearls hidden under the haystack.”

With her BlueBox Rocket CEO clientele, working to unburden those pearls is often a matter of navigating self-imposed encumbrance.

“Oftentimes, when it comes to CEOs, a few things get in their way,” Hung says. “One is a fear of success; they’re already in a comfortable position and it can give them pause to do something new. The other obstacles are fear of rejection; sometimes, a new idea may be perceived as too quirky or not practical, and that can cause hesitation.”

For a rebel with a clear cause, Hung’s atypical, if not unconventional path to coaching has led her to a unique peak of mentorship. It’s a rocket ride, which is leading and launching her clients toward newfound achievement with non-traditional fuel.

“To do something the same way everybody else is doing it,” concludes Hung with a wry smile, “well that is just terribly boring.”

This article was edited and published by Rick Weinberg, California Business Journal’s Founder, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. Click here for Rick Weinberg’s biography.

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Judd Spicer, Senior Writer, California Business Journal

Judd Spicer is a Business Feature writer, Host of the Spicer Speaking Podcast and Co-Host at The Press Box Radio Show for ESPN. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.